The BBC's director of sport, Barbara Slater, said on Wednesday that the corporation will be better placed to cover the London Olympic Games from Manchester in 2012 than it would have been from London.

Sport is one of several BBC departments, including Children's and Radio 5 Live, currently being transferred from West London to BBC North, the new MediaCity headquarters in Salford.

Critics have seen the transfer of sports staff shortly before the Olympics as one of the most dubious aspects of the controversial project.

However, Slater told journalists at the MediaCity today: "We are better equipped to cover the games with BBC Sport located here."

"The back engine, the fact this is HD, the fact this is tapeless absolutely are essential elements of the coverage of 2012," she said. "And without the ability to have an HD base, a tapeless base with the connectivity that will operate across this site, that would absolutely have been a handicap to the ambition we currently have for 2012."

Nonetheless, a small planning team will be retained in London until the Olympics are over. "Those that are absolutely working 100% on the planning and preparation for the games are having a slightly later relocation. They will come after 2012."

So far, more than 1,000 staff have started working at BBC North, and broadcasting of output of operations like Radio 5 Live is being transferred in stages.

The BBC North director, Peter Salmon, poured scorn on recent suggestions in the press that the prospect of staff transfer is prompting a spate of divorces.

"I've got no experience of it at all," he said. "I know quite a few relationships that have started to blossom."